Helminths in common eiders (Somateria mollissima): Sex, age, and migration have differential effects on parasite loads
In birds, parasites cause detrimental effects to the individual host, including reduced survival and reproductive output. The level of parasitic infection can vary with a range of factors, including migratory status, body size, sex, and age of hosts, or season. Understanding this baseline variation...
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ftpubmed:oai:pubmedcentral.nih.gov:6536730 2023-05-15T15:41:14+02:00 Helminths in common eiders (Somateria mollissima): Sex, age, and migration have differential effects on parasite loads Vestbo, Stine Hindberg, Claus Forbes, Mark R. Mallory, Mark L. Merkel, Flemming Steenweg, Rolanda J. Funch, Peter Gilchrist, H. Grant Robertson, Gregory J. Provencher, Jennifer F. 2019-05-17 http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6536730/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2019.05.004 en eng Elsevier http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6536730/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2019.05.004 © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Australian Society for Parasitology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). CC-BY Article Text 2019 ftpubmed https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2019.05.004 2019-06-02T00:30:40Z In birds, parasites cause detrimental effects to the individual host, including reduced survival and reproductive output. The level of parasitic infection can vary with a range of factors, including migratory status, body size, sex, and age of hosts, or season. Understanding this baseline variation is important in order to identify the effects of external changes such as climate change on the parasitic load and potential impacts to individuals and populations. In this study, we compared the infection level (prevalence, intensity, and abundance) of gastrointestinal parasites in a total of 457 common eiders (Somateria mollissima) from four different sampling locations (Belcher Islands, Cape Dorset, West Greenland and Newfoundland), and explored the effects of migration, sex and age on levels of parasitism. Across all samples, eiders were infected with one nematode genus, two acanthocephalan genera, three genera of cestodes, and three trematode genera. Migratory phase and status alone did not explain the observed variation in infection levels; the expectation that post-migratory eiders would be more parasitized than pre-migratory eiders, due to the energetic cost of migration, did not fit our results. No effect of age was detected, whereas effects of sex and body size were only detected for certain parasitic taxa and was inconsistent with location. Since gastrointestinal helminths are trophically-transmitted, future studies of the regional and temporal variation in the diet of eiders and the associated variation and infestation level of intermediate hosts might further explain the observed variation of the parasitic load in eiders in different regions. Text Belcher Islands Cape Dorset Greenland Newfoundland Somateria mollissima PubMed Central (PMC) Belcher ENVELOPE(-94.172,-94.172,57.936,57.936) Belcher Islands ENVELOPE(-79.250,-79.250,56.184,56.184) Cape Dorset ENVELOPE(-76.482,-76.482,64.179,64.179) Greenland International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife 9 184 194 |
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Article Vestbo, Stine Hindberg, Claus Forbes, Mark R. Mallory, Mark L. Merkel, Flemming Steenweg, Rolanda J. Funch, Peter Gilchrist, H. Grant Robertson, Gregory J. Provencher, Jennifer F. Helminths in common eiders (Somateria mollissima): Sex, age, and migration have differential effects on parasite loads |
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Article |
description |
In birds, parasites cause detrimental effects to the individual host, including reduced survival and reproductive output. The level of parasitic infection can vary with a range of factors, including migratory status, body size, sex, and age of hosts, or season. Understanding this baseline variation is important in order to identify the effects of external changes such as climate change on the parasitic load and potential impacts to individuals and populations. In this study, we compared the infection level (prevalence, intensity, and abundance) of gastrointestinal parasites in a total of 457 common eiders (Somateria mollissima) from four different sampling locations (Belcher Islands, Cape Dorset, West Greenland and Newfoundland), and explored the effects of migration, sex and age on levels of parasitism. Across all samples, eiders were infected with one nematode genus, two acanthocephalan genera, three genera of cestodes, and three trematode genera. Migratory phase and status alone did not explain the observed variation in infection levels; the expectation that post-migratory eiders would be more parasitized than pre-migratory eiders, due to the energetic cost of migration, did not fit our results. No effect of age was detected, whereas effects of sex and body size were only detected for certain parasitic taxa and was inconsistent with location. Since gastrointestinal helminths are trophically-transmitted, future studies of the regional and temporal variation in the diet of eiders and the associated variation and infestation level of intermediate hosts might further explain the observed variation of the parasitic load in eiders in different regions. |
format |
Text |
author |
Vestbo, Stine Hindberg, Claus Forbes, Mark R. Mallory, Mark L. Merkel, Flemming Steenweg, Rolanda J. Funch, Peter Gilchrist, H. Grant Robertson, Gregory J. Provencher, Jennifer F. |
author_facet |
Vestbo, Stine Hindberg, Claus Forbes, Mark R. Mallory, Mark L. Merkel, Flemming Steenweg, Rolanda J. Funch, Peter Gilchrist, H. Grant Robertson, Gregory J. Provencher, Jennifer F. |
author_sort |
Vestbo, Stine |
title |
Helminths in common eiders (Somateria mollissima): Sex, age, and migration have differential effects on parasite loads |
title_short |
Helminths in common eiders (Somateria mollissima): Sex, age, and migration have differential effects on parasite loads |
title_full |
Helminths in common eiders (Somateria mollissima): Sex, age, and migration have differential effects on parasite loads |
title_fullStr |
Helminths in common eiders (Somateria mollissima): Sex, age, and migration have differential effects on parasite loads |
title_full_unstemmed |
Helminths in common eiders (Somateria mollissima): Sex, age, and migration have differential effects on parasite loads |
title_sort |
helminths in common eiders (somateria mollissima): sex, age, and migration have differential effects on parasite loads |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2019 |
url |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6536730/ https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2019.05.004 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(-94.172,-94.172,57.936,57.936) ENVELOPE(-79.250,-79.250,56.184,56.184) ENVELOPE(-76.482,-76.482,64.179,64.179) |
geographic |
Belcher Belcher Islands Cape Dorset Greenland |
geographic_facet |
Belcher Belcher Islands Cape Dorset Greenland |
genre |
Belcher Islands Cape Dorset Greenland Newfoundland Somateria mollissima |
genre_facet |
Belcher Islands Cape Dorset Greenland Newfoundland Somateria mollissima |
op_relation |
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6536730/ http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2019.05.004 |
op_rights |
© 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of Australian Society for Parasitology. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijppaw.2019.05.004 |
container_title |
International Journal for Parasitology: Parasites and Wildlife |
container_volume |
9 |
container_start_page |
184 |
op_container_end_page |
194 |
_version_ |
1766374146277638144 |